Those were the good ole days, when coach Avery Johnson’s Nets brought the fight to teams with strong interior play and rebounding on both ends. They may not have been the best team, but it was fun watching them compete every night. The Celtics, just a game shy of the NBA Finals last season, were so flustered by a second straight defeat to these upstarts from Brooklyn that the only lame response they could muster was to instigate a brawl.

There will be some who will point to injuries as an excuse for this swoon. Center Brook Lopez missed seven games with a foot injury earlier this month, forward Kris Humphries sat out the last two games with an abdominal strain, and star point guard Deron Williams finally took a game off last night to recover from his aching right wrist.

Except that the good teams are at least able to tread water with star players out. Like Chicago (Derrick Rose) and Indiana (Danny Granger).

Ah, the Knicks. They have somehow gotten into Johnson’s head. I know the NBA is a copycat league and it seems Johnson was enthralled with the way the Manhattanites spanked the defending champion Heat twice this season. Late in November, Johnson slowly began morphing his team into a similar mode, consequences be damned.

You know, go small, spread the floor, and make your opponents guard the three-point line. After the Nets fell in the Garden a week ago, Johnson mentioned something about wanting to get “better spacing.” That’s when he decided to completely abandon the traditional power forward role right from the opening tip.

What a great plan—if your roster is loaded with high-percentage three-point shooters like the Knicks.

Unfortunately, none of the Nets’ rotation players are connecting on more than 40% of their three-point attempts. The Nets are 19th in the League in three-point efficiency, yet have taken the 7th most attempts per game. In these last two losses, the Nets went a combined 11-for-41 (27%) from beyond the arc. So by going small they’re weakening their inside scoring to–what?

Shoot and miss more threes?

Anyway, hasn’t Johnson ever heard of the term “size ADVANTAGE?” I’ve never heard an NBA coach, check that, any basketball coach, complain that his team was too tall.

By removing a big man, it makes a difference to a player like guard Joe Johnson, who uses his 6-foot-7 frame to back down his defender on all those “iso-Joe’s” the Nets run. Johnson hasn’t been as effective going up against the bigger bodies, shooting 37% from the floor in his last four games after looking like he had finally overcome an early-season slump.

Much of it is because I’m always watching Lopez caught out high on a pick-and-roll blitz with no one else on the floor to protect the rim. The paint has been wide open for drivers, cutters, and anyone looking to pick up loose change off a miss.

The Nets prioritized the re-signing of forward Gerald Wallace over the summer so he could guard the superstar small forwards, like LeBron James and Anthony. Well, when the Celtics started twin seven-footers on Tuesday, that meant an undersized Wallace was on Kevin Garnett, not Paul Pierce. Less than four minutes later, Wallace was on the bench with two fouls.

It was a similar tale last night, with the Bucks scoring at will in their 33-point second quarter and were only mildly threatened thereafter. Not only were the Nets unable to stop Milwaukee’s high-scoring backcourt of Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis (combined 45 points), but they were also stung by reserves Ersan Ilyasova and Mike Dunleavy (combined 34 points). So much for small ball being better at defending the three-point line—the Bucks shot a ridiculous 59% from long range.

And who has been the primary beneficiary of this change in philosophy? Guys like Keith Bogans, who had a strong game against Philadelphia before regressing to the mean as the starter these last two days with an aggregate minus-26. I’m sorry, but although Bogans hasn’t been bricking as many attempts as he did earlier in the season, he is not respected enough around the League as a three-point threat to offset the damage that has been done in other areas.